Dixie's threads are always self referential. When faced with a question he cannot resolve in his world he will change the question. It is why he needs the last word. He lost badly the debate on WMDs in Iraq, and yet I would bet to this day he would still argue and force the issue into some other area in which he can then destroy an argument that exists only in his creation.
But Dixie is at least articulate; you can understand him. But what of all the other Americans, the forty percent in this nation who are functionally illiterate? Can one, for instance believe that as a nation we have become so dumb Sarah Palin was viable candidate? A person whose intellect was somewhere around the 5th grade. And what are the criticisms of Gore, Kerry, or Obama? They can actually create a structured sentence and not grunt words together like W - A guy who looks good in jeans, and we want to have a beer with, and so we vote for this inarticulate, incurious C student.
Russia could not defeat America, but America, just as Russia did, will defeat itself if it does not learn that some things are important and ideas are not all the same. The constant repetitive groans from the illiterate on global warming, on fair wages, on fair taxes, on government will surely have a toll. They already have.
Consider a few items from a recent article in Harper's Magazine. One out of every four Americans believe they have been reincarnated, 44% percent believe in ghosts, 71% believe in angels, forty percent Gawd created all things in their present form in the last 10,000 years. Twenty percent think the sun may revolve around the earth. The list goes on.
One can then ask themselves is it necessary that a citizen be educated. Can one even imagine Abraham Lincoln talking to Americans today for two hours straight. No. Can one imagine FDR's speeches: 'we are in this together, we need to work hard.' No. They would be out the door, headed for cheap junk at Walmart that makes them happy, or quickly turn on 24 so they can get that tingly fear and wonderful relief as Jack saves them from all things bad. Does jack work in government? Sorry, I have never watched the show, the coming attractions are enough for me.
From 'Notebook, A Quibble,' By Mark Slouka
"I was raised to be ashamed of my ignorance, and to try to do something about it if at all possible. I carry that burden to this day, and have successfully passed it on to my children. I don’t believe I have the right to an opinion about something I know nothing about—constitutional law, for example, or sailing—a notion that puts me sadly out of step with a growing majority of my countrymen, many of whom may be unable to tell you anything at all about Islam, say, or socialism, or climate change, except that they hate it, are against it, don’t believe in it. Worse still (or more amusing, depending on the day) are those who can tell you, and then offer up a stew of New Age blather, right-wing rant, and bloggers’ speculation that’s so divorced from actual, demonstrable fact, that’s so not true, as the kids would say, that the mind goes numb with wonder. “Way I see it is,” a man in the Tulsa Motel 6 swimming pool told me last summer, “if English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for us.”
Quite possibly, this belief in our own opinion, regardless of the facts, may be what separates us from the nations of the world, what makes us unique in God’s eyes. The average German or Czech, though possibly no less ignorant than his American counterpart, will probably consider the possibility that someone who has spent his life studying something may have an opinion worth considering. Not the American. Although perfectly willing to recognize expertise in basketball, for example, or refrigerator repair, when it comes to the realm of ideas, all folks (and their opinions) are suddenly equal. Thus evolution is a damned lie, global warming a liberal hoax, and Republicans care about people like you."
http://www.harpers.org/
But Dixie is at least articulate; you can understand him. But what of all the other Americans, the forty percent in this nation who are functionally illiterate? Can one, for instance believe that as a nation we have become so dumb Sarah Palin was viable candidate? A person whose intellect was somewhere around the 5th grade. And what are the criticisms of Gore, Kerry, or Obama? They can actually create a structured sentence and not grunt words together like W - A guy who looks good in jeans, and we want to have a beer with, and so we vote for this inarticulate, incurious C student.
Russia could not defeat America, but America, just as Russia did, will defeat itself if it does not learn that some things are important and ideas are not all the same. The constant repetitive groans from the illiterate on global warming, on fair wages, on fair taxes, on government will surely have a toll. They already have.
Consider a few items from a recent article in Harper's Magazine. One out of every four Americans believe they have been reincarnated, 44% percent believe in ghosts, 71% believe in angels, forty percent Gawd created all things in their present form in the last 10,000 years. Twenty percent think the sun may revolve around the earth. The list goes on.
One can then ask themselves is it necessary that a citizen be educated. Can one even imagine Abraham Lincoln talking to Americans today for two hours straight. No. Can one imagine FDR's speeches: 'we are in this together, we need to work hard.' No. They would be out the door, headed for cheap junk at Walmart that makes them happy, or quickly turn on 24 so they can get that tingly fear and wonderful relief as Jack saves them from all things bad. Does jack work in government? Sorry, I have never watched the show, the coming attractions are enough for me.
From 'Notebook, A Quibble,' By Mark Slouka
"I was raised to be ashamed of my ignorance, and to try to do something about it if at all possible. I carry that burden to this day, and have successfully passed it on to my children. I don’t believe I have the right to an opinion about something I know nothing about—constitutional law, for example, or sailing—a notion that puts me sadly out of step with a growing majority of my countrymen, many of whom may be unable to tell you anything at all about Islam, say, or socialism, or climate change, except that they hate it, are against it, don’t believe in it. Worse still (or more amusing, depending on the day) are those who can tell you, and then offer up a stew of New Age blather, right-wing rant, and bloggers’ speculation that’s so divorced from actual, demonstrable fact, that’s so not true, as the kids would say, that the mind goes numb with wonder. “Way I see it is,” a man in the Tulsa Motel 6 swimming pool told me last summer, “if English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for us.”
Quite possibly, this belief in our own opinion, regardless of the facts, may be what separates us from the nations of the world, what makes us unique in God’s eyes. The average German or Czech, though possibly no less ignorant than his American counterpart, will probably consider the possibility that someone who has spent his life studying something may have an opinion worth considering. Not the American. Although perfectly willing to recognize expertise in basketball, for example, or refrigerator repair, when it comes to the realm of ideas, all folks (and their opinions) are suddenly equal. Thus evolution is a damned lie, global warming a liberal hoax, and Republicans care about people like you."
http://www.harpers.org/
